Ohio Writer Voted 2022 Towel Day Ambassador Honors Author Douglas Adams with Children's Literacy Fundraiser

DAYTON, Ohio, April 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ohio writer Gery Deer has won the unusual title, "2022 Intergalactic Towel Day Ambassador." On March 30^th worldwide fans of the humorous sci-fi series, "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy," elected Deer as their representative in celebration of the fan-created holiday known as, "Towel Day." Deer will combine this Towel Day celebration activities with a professional milestone to raise money for children's literacy.

Observed every May 25^th, Towel Day pays tribute to late British writer, Douglas Adams, who penned the original BBC radio play and novelizations of, "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy," and its sequels. On that day, fans around the world openly carry a towel and share photos and stories online in honor of Adams' use of the bath linen so prominently in the Hitchhikers series.

As Adams put it, a towel is, "the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have," detailing its practical value in any number of ways such as a facemask, sail, weapon, and, of course, something to dry off with – if it's still clean enough.

A lifelong fan of Adams and the Hitchhikers series, Deer is honored to commemorate the author's life and work as Towel Day Ambassador. "I met Douglas Adams at a book signing in 1992," Deer said. "I told him I was trying to be a writer and he said, 'Whatever you do, keep at it! No matter how bad anyone says you are, just keep writing,' and I did."

Sadly, Adams died on May 11, 2001, at the young age of 49 due to a heart attack caused by undiagnosed heart disease. Stunned fans quickly organized the first Towel Day celebration just two weeks later.

Now, 30 years after his brief conversation with Adams, Deer is an award-winning freelance journalist and copywriter living in Jamestown, Ohio, a rural suburb of Dayton. His public relations and media production firm, GLD Enterprises Communications, Ltd., is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year. "I want to use this time to draw attention to one thing without which neither my career nor my business would exist – literacy." Deer said. "Others should have the same opportunity so we're going to try to get more books to kids."

From now until May 25^th (Towel Day), the GLD Enterprises Communications Literacy Initiative will be raising money for Reading is Fundamental (RIF), the nation's largest children's literacy nonprofit. The organization helps to get books into the hands of children to encourages them to read at an early age.

In addition to Adams, the literacy fundraiser also honors the memory of others who inspired Deer's lifelong focus on reading and writing: his mother, Lois Deer, who passed away from Alzheimer's disease in 2011, and children's authors Hildegarde H. Swift and Lynd Ward [The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge].

"I hope that Hitchhikers Guide fans will help us shine a brighter light on literacy, not just in America, but around the world. Literacy really is power," Deer said. "It's the silver bullet that helps increase wages, combat bigotry, and lets you hitchhike the length and breadth of the galaxy right from your local library!" To donate, go online to www.gldcommunications.com, and click on "Literacy Initiative" in the menu bar. For now, in the words of the dolphins, "So long, and thanks for all the fish."

CONTACT: 
Gery Deer
GLD Enterprises Communications, Ltd. 
[email protected]  
937-902-4857

SOURCE Gery Deer